HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Huntsville Hospital and Athens-Limestone Hospital have received their allotment of Pfizer vaccines in the last two weeks.
"Those two facilities received 6,825 doses, we have administered about 74% of those 6,800 doses," said David Spillers, CEO of Huntsville Hospital.
And more recently, local hospitals are starting to receive the Moderna vaccine.
"We've got Moderna vaccine in Decatur and Helen Keller, Marshall and Highlands. Those were just received late last week or the beginning of this week, we have started administering the vaccine in those communities as well," said Spillers.
Vaccine distribution is starting to make its way outside of hospitals too, and will now start heading its way to nursing homes in the area.
"Around the state, nursing homes and nursing home workers started receiving the vaccine this week, there's a federal contract with CVS and Walgreens to administer those and they have started," said Spillers.
Even though the arrival of the vaccine is good news to the health community, there are some things people should know and precautions that should still be taken after receiving the vaccine.
"You have to continue to wear your mask when you get the vaccine, you can still infect people after you've had the vaccine, even though you might not get sick, you could still carry enough of the virus to infect people, and you're gonna have to realize that the vaccine may take up to a month before it's fully effective. So, everybody's gonna have to continue to stay safe and continue to mask and continue to social distance," said Spillers.